The latest news comes days after Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon used a speech at the Conservative Party Conference to call for an increase in defence funding as his ministry announced a £1 billion support package for the Royal Navy fleet.

Newsnight reported that the plan, coupled with the loss of 1,000 Royal Marines, had alarmed senior commando officers.

If confirmed, the loss of Albion, a former flagship of the Royal Navy, and Bulwark would leave the Navy without a dedicated amphibious assault ship.

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Beach landings in countries and areas where the enemy controls the harbours have been used in many modern conflicts, including D-Day during the Second World War and the Falklands War.

Lat year was a busy year for HMS Bulwark.

She was involved in the Royal Navy’s Joint Expeditionary Force (Maritime) (JEF(M)) Task Group in the Middle East and Mediterranean.

The ship has now steamed nearly a quarter of a million nautical miles since entering service in 2004.

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In a speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Tuesday, Sir Michael said the Armed Forces must “modernise” the way it worked “as we grow our defence budget”.

He said that as threats “intensify”, his department was “now looking right across government to make sure we are doing enough, spending enough, to properly protect our country against all of those threats – cyber, hybrid warfare, rogue states, terrorist attacks”.

“Spending 2% of GDP on defence is the minimum Nato commitment,” he said.

“We meet it but we should always aim to do better still.”

An MOD spokesman said: “In the face of ever-changing threats, we are contributing to the cross-government review of national security capabilities and looking at how we best spend our rising defence budget to support that.

“No decisions have yet been made and at this stage, any discussion of the options is pure speculation.”

Last month Admiral Sir George Zambellas, who previously commanded Plymouth-based frigates HMS Argyll and the former HMS Chatham, warned Britain will have the military capability of a “Third World nation” unless more is pumped into defence spending.

The former First Sea Lord gave a bruising assessment of the country’s military strength saying there are too few ships and submarines.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Zambellas said “someone has to speak out” about the gaps in the country’s Armed Forces.

Former first sea lord Sir George Zambellas

He told the paper that after the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review: “You have a choice now. You either put more money in or you stop doing serious things and disappear into a Third World nation, security wise, even though we are spending billions of defence.

“There is a suggestion that there’s lots more efficiencies to be made. There are not.

“I’ve been helping to deliver efficiencies for my 37 years in the Navy. We have reached the bottom of the efficiency barrel and we all know that because the Navy is so hollowed out.

“It hasn’t got enough missiles and spares. It’s very short of the integrated support that is needed as a single service.”